1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system which stores information of various types, which is obtained in the real world, in connection with keys indicative of the attribute and feature of the information so that the real-world information is stored quickly and surely in the virtual world which is formed of information accumulated in the Internet, for example, and stored information of various types is retrieved easily.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, information networks such as the Internet are designed to accumulate information of various types (literal information, image information, phonic information, etc.) in the form of Hyper media (Hyper link) which is information of various types in organic connection, and provide a virtual world which is formed of the stored information for the user who makes access to the information.
The user can go around the virtual world accomplished by such an information network as Internet through the World Wide Web (WWW) which is formed by information of various types on the computers of multiple information servers based on the information link of the Hyper media. For making access to information in the WWW, the user needs to designate directly Uniform Resource Locator (URL) which describes a server and protocol for information access or trace the link established among information following the access to the information indicated by other URL. Namely, the conventional information network is deficient in that the user who intends to obtain information from the WWW must specify the address (URL) of the virtual world and cannot access to the intended information directly.
It would be convenient for the user to make access easily and surely to intended information without the knowledge of information which is needed in making access to the network. In this case, the user in the real world can obtain information of various types provided by the Internet by establishing a link between the real world and virtual world which is the organic connection of information. Based on the established link, the user who gets information of various types in the real world can store the information easily and surely in the information network, thereby forming an enriched information source. Moreover, based on the provision of a direct link between the real world and virtual world, various useful services are available for the user.